


An Afternoon Off

by Trash_Fyre



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:20:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26945845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trash_Fyre/pseuds/Trash_Fyre
Summary: A one-shot of the marauder's interacting with each other and Lily on an afternoon off from Lessons.-- Or, Sirius and Remus are dating, and James is pinning after Lily. But on one sunny afternoon off Sirius gets bored and decides to play match-maker.
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Kudos: 22





	An Afternoon Off

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, thank you for reading this! It is my first time posting so please be gentle if you feel the need to comment, but I will gladly accept critique. 
> 
> I wanted to do a one-shot but had so much fun writing it I may add another chapter(s).

A bright, yellow sun was shining down onto a vast black lake. Tentacles were dipping in and out of the water, and laughter could be heard ringing through the valley. On the shore of the lake sat children between ages eleven to seventeen. Most of them wearing muggle clothes, those in their school robes were still due to class later.

A clear, sharp voice rang out. “I’m bored.” Said Sirius, trying to control the whine in his voice. His shaggy black hair was sprawled above his head which laid in Remus’s lap.

“We can go snog somewhere?” Remus offered? His long, thin scared hands played with Sirius’s hair as he looked down at his face. 

“But I’m also lazy.” Sirius was full on whining now.

“Hmm, that does pose a problem. We can snog here then?” A playful smile spread on his lips; a daring look had formed in his eyes.

“Oh, hell you are!” Snapped James whose eyes were staring across the grass to a pale girl with vibrant red hair.

Remus ignored James and bent down to kiss Sirius. Sirius received Remus’s lips enthusiastically, his hands entangled in Remus’s hair and pulled him lower. They parted before James could turn around and tell them off. James’ only rule to his two best friends dating was that they were not to be lovey-dovey with each other in his presence. James could handle the hand holding and closeness, but he drew the line at kissing and prolonged hugging. Sirius and Remus had been dating since the end of last summer, by now James was used to the newfound closeness but he still got disturbed at seeing two people he viewed as brothers kissing. 

James often thought why they couldn’t have found different people to fall in love with but then he'd remember he didn’t particular want anyone new in their circle. Unless it was the owner of the shiny red hair his eyes were currently burning into.

Sirius saw who James was staring towards, “made any progress with Lily?” He sounded bored.

“We’re partners in Potions now because of Slughorn, but we haven’t said more than a “hello” and a “how are you”. Tomorrow I’m going to ask her what she thinks of the class.” James sounded determined, like he had been siting there working up the nerve to get to that conclusion.

“Good luck, mate!” Said Remus sincerely, looking up at James. Sirius, however, looked at James with pity. James had been pinning after Lily Evans ever since she didn’t laugh at his bad joke at their sorting 6 years ago. The more James pinned the more Lily would turn her nose up at him. Which Sirius found frustrating because if Lily were to have one decent conversation with James, she would discover that they had a lot in common. Both were big headed and quick witted, and as Sirius discovered over the years, had a remarkably similar sense of humor – for starters they both loved puns.

Sirius’s sharp grey eyes looked back and forth between the two idiots, narrowing as his brain worked on a plan of amusement. When depraved of something to do for too long of a time, he would look inward towards his friend group. His favorite form of entertainment laid in pointing Severus out (who was always either hiding from them or waiting around a corner to hex them) to James and waiting to see the situation play out. Severus was the gift that kept on giving for Sirius, not only could you get your laughs right then and there but the memories of it brought back that same amusement. Sirius would often daydream of one of the encounters with Severus while in Professor Bin’s History class, that was if he wasn’t thinking of Remus.

When there wasn’t a Severus to be found sometimes Peter would be the unfortunate one who caught Sirius’s attention, pointing out flaws in Peter to amuse himself. Pranking James was another favorite because it usually involved bonding with Remus and Peter while they played along. But today he would get his entertainment from James’s complete inability to speak with Lily. Remus who was surveying Sirius knew something was brewing. He had always felt Sirius’s face gave strong villain vibes, with his arched eyebrows, quick grey eyes, and high cheekbones, and found that when he looked particularly gorgeous it meant he was planning something. He would never say it out loud but it was the first thing that attracted him to Sirius. 

Sirius sat upon his elbows, his black hair falling into Remus’s lap. “Hey, Lily!” He yelled out. A couple of sixth years who were a few feet away looked up from their conversation to see what was happening. 

Lily slowly looked over, unsure if she had the patience to deal with them today. Her pale freckled arm moved a portion of her hair behind her ear. Individually she liked them with no problem, but together they were a nightmare and unpredictable. Lily surprised herself by feeling a jolt of jealousy as she took the three of them in, a normal feeling more than half the population of Hogwarts felt when they saw the trio. Usually the jealousy was about their looks, or how well they did in class, or how they would constantly break rules but hardly ever seemed to be punished. Lily, however, felt jealous of their close friendship. It was something she always admired in them, that no matter what happened they stood by each other’s sides.

Of course, she had her own small friend group, but she knew their friendship wasn’t as deep or real as _theirs_. This unanimous jealousy intensified when school came back last September and everyone found out Sirius and Remus were dating, and how close James still was with them. Lily knew that if anyone else started dating their best friend that friend group, riffed with either jealousy or uncomfortability, would dissolve. But a new feeling had developed in Lily as she turned to face them – a sense of fear, mostly over her own feelings. Summer (due to puberty) had only intensified Sirius’s eyes, making him seem colder, while James’s jaw became more chiseled, looking at them made her stomach squeeze and her brain shout _run away_. It didn’t matter how talented you were, they were too beautiful and skilled at magic to look at without feeling ashamed of yourself. Lily sucked in her breath and exhaled out sharply, trying to get a hold of her thoughts. 

“Did you see that? Just bringing her attention to me caused her to be irritated.” Whispered James at Sirius fervently. 

“Yeah?” Lily called back trying her best to sound nonchalant. 

Sirius kneed James, “well?” he urged at him.

“Well?! You called her!” He whispered, then looked up at Lily and smiled awkwardly at her. Lily’s face contoured into a half grimace half smile in return. 

Sirius looked over James’s shoulder and yelled out, “I wanted to ask you a question.” 

Lily looked to Sirius, not trusting the look in his eyes, then to James who was still smiling weirdly at her, and lastly to Remus who shrugged, which was his usual move when someone tried to look at him for answers regarding his friends. Then she heard Minnie, her closes Hogwarts friend whisper, “if he’s got a question why doesn’t he just come here? Lily you aren’t a dog to go running when he beckons.” Minnie looked disapprovingly towards the trio. Before she knew what she was doing, Lily got to her feet and wondered over to the trio. She stood standing over them, to make herself feel more confident about this decision she crossed her arms. 

“I was just wondering if you were able to figure out nonverbal spells yet?” Sirius smiled up at Lily.

“Er. Yeah, why?” She asked suspiciously. She hoped Sirius wasn’t going to insist that they duel. 

“Ah well James here hasn’t been able to nail it, and Remus and I have are too busy with detention,” which wasn’t a lie since it was just last night that they had the unfortunate luck of having Professor McGonagall find them half dressed, behind a tapestry. “So, I was wondering since you’re really talented if you could help him?” There was nothing sinister in his voice, in fact it sounded genuine, but there was still a certain look in Sirius’s eyes that made Lily feel uneasy.

James’s face was caught between wanting to know if the detention Sirius mentioned was true (if so, then HOW?) but also embarrassement by Sirius asking Lily to help him. James had been having trouble with that spell in class but after a couple of self-taught lessons at lunch and after dinner he was able to do it quiet effectively. Pretty much sharing a brain with Sirius, James knew what he was aiming at, so he kept the same smile on his face as he looked up at Lily. Lily wondered if James wasn’t all there by the way he kept smiling at her. Looking unsure, she finally said yes. 

“I can start practice after dinner tonight if you’re free?” She said to James, who was caught so off guard he could only continue to gawk at her.

“Excuse my friend,” Sirius said as he placed his hand on James’s shoulder, “tonight is great, common room?” 

“Er, yeah. Bye then.” Lily turned and left still with an unsure look on her face. 

James rounded on Sirius but seemed to be struggling with what he wanted to address first, “I - why - but how? What? Detention? Tonight?” 

It was Remus who spoke next, his checks flushing red as he spoke, “McGonagall kinda discovered us behind a tapestry last night.” Though Remus was quite embarrassed by what happened he said it with the confidence of a man who would risk everything to do what happened behind that tapestry again. James shrieked with laughter and rolled onto his back before Remus had finish sharing the events. Everyone, including Lily and her friends turned to see what was happening. James, who had tears in his eyes, was trying to breathe through his laughter. Finally, he was only able to choke out, “embarrassing!” 

Sirius, who to Remus’s detriment, always broke out in laughter when James started laughing was also now too weak to sit up, and instead was leaning towards the ground shaking as he laughed silently. Sirius kept replying the shock on McGonagall’s face when she found them, and Remus saying, “good evening, Professor,” as he pushed Sirius off him and lifted Sirius’s discarded shirt over his bare chest. Remus was blazing red but had such a cordial look, while McGonagall was so angry she just shook as she walked them back to the Gryffindor Tower. Finally, when they arrived, she said, “I do not expect young adults as yourselves to be celibate, but I do hope for some decorum from students in my house.” She said sharply. “Detention tomorrow after dinner, And ten points each.” She waited until they went up to the dormitory, then turned into a cat and waited in the shadows for a few extra minutes. When it seemed Sirius and Remus were staying put, McGonagall left to her office.

Sirius officially extracted himself from Remus by tying his hair into a bun, a few shorted pieces of hair fell into his face, Remus reach over and tucked some of them behind his ear. Sirius reddened at this and hastily looked away. Remus didn’t take offense at this behavior; he knew Sirius wasn’t used to gentle gestures.

"Hey thanks for the thing with Lily." It was said so quietly that Remus didn't hear anything, but Sirius who was so in tuned with his best friend gave him a playful shove in understanding.

“Are you still bored?” Remus whispered to Sirius.

“Mmm…” Sirius looked over to Remus. They didn’t speak to one another, but both got up from the grass in hopes of finding a corner to snog in.

“Oi! What about me?” Yelled James.

“James, love, I draw the line at you joining in on our snog sessions.” Remus said in a mock seriousness. Sirius laughed at Remus's joke, then suggested to find Peter.

“This blows, the only people I actually like are abandoning me to make out in a dark corner, and here I am friendless.” James pouted.

“Friendless? That’s because you alienate people who aren’t us!” Said Remus. Sirius was brought to laughter again by Remus who turned to him and said, “you do the same thing by the way.” His eyebrow arched at Sirius. “There are plenty of people you could hang out with if you wanted to.” Remus continued at James.

“Fine, just leave me be then!” Said James who ignored Remus's comment, and threw himself onto the grass. James closed his eyes and propped his head up with his arms. Then after a few seconds of silence opened an eye to look up at his friends who looked incredulously down at him.

“Oh, you’re still here then?” James said with an air of indifference, but he couldn’t keep the small smile creeping up on his face at bay. Before he knew it both Sirius and Remus were dog piling on him, howling with laughter. For the third time that afternoon passersby looked over at the rolling pile of limbs and youthful laughter coming from the trio.

“Oh, alright then, lets grab some grub and do something productive… like find out where Snivellus is hiding today.” Said Sirius standing up and helping James and Remus to their feet.

“Let him be, please.” Remus begged, but he knew that once the suggested had been made neither James nor Sirius were going to back down.

“Yeah, let’s go find out why he isn’t outside on this glorious day. The greasy git probably found an empty classroom to hold a “future death eaters” meeting.” James said, a glint of disgust could be seen in his eyes as he mentioned the death eaters.

The boys walked slowly back up to the castle taking in the glances coming from their fellow peers which followed them as they made their way to the Great Hall.


End file.
